Read with BonusRead with Bonus

Chapter 5 - Meeting Ezra.

Blanca

I was right about the rogue being clever. He didn’t even go back to his camp to grab his loot. I followed his scent and the guidance from the spirits and found it led me back to the town where he could hide among the humans. Shifting, I quickly put on some clothes and walked down the alley. When I reached the street, I took a moment to scan the area and noted the rogue disappearing into another alley.

I didn’t want to run after him again because I seriously needed to talk to him. After quickly summing up his situation, I decided that since he wasn’t feral and wasn’t trying to get into our territory, he was probably just trying to find food and survive. I couldn’t let Carlo and his brood of thugs kill the guy just because he was in neutral territory looking for food.

Besides, the guy intrigued me. It wasn’t a mate bond that was drawing me to him, but it was something and from the guidance I was receiving from the spirit world, I guessed they knew something I didn’t. Thinking back to the first time I saw a ghost, I couldn’t help but giggle. I had just woken up and I thought it was my gran coming to speak to me. I got the fright of my life when I could see her standing beside her own body and then I found out that I was the only one who could see her and from there my life just went downhill fast.

People who used to be my friends stopped talking to me. People who weren’t talking to me before started gossiping about me, and they didn’t even have the decency to hide it. I very quickly became isolated and that was when I decided to focus on my studies. I didn’t have any kind of social life outside of the normal pack events and even then, people didn’t seem to notice when I left.

In the beginning, I was simply swarmed by spirits wanting to contact their relatives, but the more I tried to tell people what I could see, the more they thought I was nuts. In the end, I stopped. I tried sending the messages through letters, but that just made the situation so bad that Carlo’s father called me in and asked me to stop doing it.

Over time, the pack stopped talking about it and they would just look at me as though I was something the cat dragged in. My poor parents suffered the most in my mind. Their reputation as the alpha family had almost been destroyed.

Lifting my nose, I caught the rogue’s scent again and noted him walking into a store. I couldn’t follow him in, and I breathed a sigh of relief to find the store didn’t have a back door. That meant I could just hang around outside and wait for him to come out as my thoughts drifted back to being able to talk to ghosts.

For a while, some of the females in the pack were convinced that my mother had had an affair and I was the love child of hers and some demon. Shaking my head as I thought about it, I watched the rogue leave the shop and go into the one next to it. I wondered if he left because they didn’t have a back door or if he was trying to sell stolen goods again.

Needing to know whether someone else would lose their property, I crossed the street and looked through the window. The bastard was trying to sell something shiny! I moved fast and stormed into the store fuming.

“Don’t buy that from him! It’s stolen!” The old man’s face turned white and the rogue took a moment before he looked at me. His eyes darted back and forth from me to the door and I had completely blocked his escape. “Don’t.” I shouted, realizing he was going to make a run for it, and he sighed.

“Yes, I’ve just caught a thief in my store!” The assistant’s voice went up two octaves and the moment I saw the phone in his hand, I nodded at the rogue and we left as fast as we could. He couldn’t shift in the middle of town because he knew that would be it for him. He could try and run, but I had found him so many times, he probably knew that I would find him again.

“What are you?” He frowned as we walked down the street and turned at the first corner. It wasn’t safe on the streets for either me or the rogue at the moment. The assistant had clearly called the police and they would be looking for us.

“A pack wolf.” I sighed.

“I know that!” He frowned, stuffing his hands in his jacket pocket as we walked around another corner. “I meant your rank. You are too fast for a gamma female.”

“And you are pretty fast for a rogue.” I raised a brow and sighed again. “I was beta born. Why are you a rogue?”

“That’s a personal question.” He frowned and it surprised me. Most rogues quickly admitted that they were exiled by their packs. By playing the sympathy card, they are sometimes accepted by new packs and could start a new life. What was prohibited in one pack might be allowed in another and, as long as they hadn’t turned feral yet, they could live completely normal lives in new packs.

“Okay,” I stopped walking, but he kept on walking. “I’m Blanca by the way.” I shouted after him. “I wanted to warn you.” I turned around to walk away and in an instant, he was beside me grabbing onto my arm. I have dealt with a few rogues over the years, but never this close.

“It seemed more as if you were trying to warn the shop assistant!” He growled. His eyes glowed amber with anger.

“Well, I go to that store a lot. It belongs to the old man and I can’t let you swindle him, but that isn’t why I’m here. I’m here to warn you that my pack knows about you and that the alpha has probably ordered your execution.” I glared right back at him. If he thought the fact that he was a rogue was going to intimidate me, he had better think again!

“Oh, hell, what did I do? Steal the bracelet he gave you at your mating ceremony?” He burst out laughing and I rolled my eyes.

“For your information,” I ripped my arm from his grip, showing the first signs of my true strength and I could see the realization in his eyes. “I’m NOT his damn mate!” I wasn’t going to waste my time helping someone who clearly didn’t need my damn help! Turning on my heel, I whipped around and started walking in the opposite direction.

“Okay, okay. I’m sorry!” He caught up with me just as I reached the street and I looked around for any signs that the pack was in town, but strangely, they weren’t. “I’m Ezra.” He held out his hand and I looked at it for a moment before shaking his hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Blanca. I’m sorry about your bracelet. A guy’s gotta eat, you know?” He shrugged and we walked down the street.

“I’m very sure that you don’t have to steal to eat. Why don’t you just hunt rabbits or something?” I frowned. I had always figured that was how rogues survived. That they lived in their wolf form permanently and avoided human towns at all cost.

“Have you ever tasted wild rabbit?” There was a mischievous glint in his eye and I shook my head. “Ah, let me guess. Little miss princess has never had to hunt for herself.” I glared at him feeling my canines starting to protrude. That was the last straw! I was here to try and help him and he was judging me without even knowing me!

“I am NOT a princess!” I growled and whipped around again to walk away, but he followed me. I didn’t care how damn intriguing he was! I didn’t want to help him anymore! He was just like every other damn wolf in our pack that judged me!

“Hey! Hey!” He softly touched my shoulder and a bolt of lightning ran through my arm as I noted his gorgeous smile. “I’m sorry, okay. It’s a force of habit to always be on the defensive. I didn’t mean …”

“To insult me?” I tilted my head to one side and stuffed my hands in my pockets to make sure nobody could see my claws by accident. “Anyway, I’ve done what I came here to do. Just get out of our town before you get killed.” I whipped around and walked away. As I reached the outskirts of town again, I realized he hadn’t followed me again and I hoped he would listen. The last thing I needed was for his ghost to start following me around!

Previous Chapter
Next Chapter